A Tour of the Guérande Salt Marshes

The first records of salt production in the Guérande salt marshes dates to the 9th century. The Guérande salt marshes comprise 1650 hectares and just beyond Guérande the Més salt marshes comprise 350 hecatares.

Salt harvested here in the same manner as centuries before. The coarse naturally gray Guérande salt is less salty than Mediterranean sea salt and slightly sweeter in flavor. This salt is unrefined and has no added ingredients. It is amazing and once you have used it to cook with, you just can’t settle for anything else. Fleur de sel is fine and flaky, like snow and it is as pure white as snow, as well. The fleur de sel is adding as the finishing touch right before consuming your dish.

Salt Production at the Guérande Salt Marshes

Between April and September water enters the pools (vasière) via canals (étier) at high tide. As the tide recedes, the water is trapped. In this first pool it is purified and then moves to the second pool (cobier) and a final third pool (oeillet) where it is harvested. Between 280 and 300 salt workers (paludiers) harvest between 8000 – 12000 metric tons of coarse gray salt and 200-300 metric tons of fleur de sel each year from 11 800 pools !

Salt Marshes

The wind blowing across the pools evaporates the water and leaves the salt. The east wind here is fairly incredible at times. It was difficult to stand upright against the strength of the gusts. Between 4 and 5 pm, the fleur de sel begins to form like ice crystals on the surface of the pool. The paludiers use a special tool to harvest this fine salt.

The coarse gray salt gets its color from the clay at the bottom of the pools. Like the fleur de sel, the harvest of the gray salt takes place in the late afternoon. Rakes scrape it from the clay it settled on. The paludiers drag the salt to the edge of the pool and then cart it away in wheelbarrows. From start to finish the entire production proceeds as in centuries before, by hand.

Salt harvested by hand.

Tours

Experience this harvest first hand by taking one of the available tours. The tour we took was offered by Terre de Sel: . It was highly informative and is only about a 20 minute drive from Guérande. During the time of our tour, two different age school groups also toured. This is definitely a destination that will interest your children. In December 2012, the Musée des Marais Salants (Salt Marshes Museum) opened.